Himalayan Odyssey(8)

Sunday 7th October, 2007 - O2 85%, Pulse 68

After yesterday's relatively short stint and a good night's sleep I woke feeling like crap - literally! I'd been up twice during the night with the trots despite taking Lomotil and Norofloxacin (antibiotic). The Norfloxacin seems to have had a good effect as the violent internal wind-storms had settled a bit but I wasn't looking forward to the long uphill to Tengboche.

After only a quarter slice of toast for me for breakfast we set off at about 8:00am from Khumjung. The first half of this part of the trail leaves Khumjung and goes down to the Dudh Khosi after about one and a half hours.

We stopped at the tea house at Phunki Tenka just after crossing the river. I was still walking in long pants and feeling the heat, no doubt also aggravated by being a bit feverish with the belly infection. At the tea house I lightened up the atmosphere a bit by cutting off the legs of my trousers to make some very (in)elegant shorts. The operation was carried out while I was wearing the trousers and using a pair of first-aid kit scissors with blades no more than 2 cm long. The result was fairly ragged but definitely one of a kind designer shorts.

From the tea house the track to Tengboche zig zags up the south-facing hillside very steeply. We took it pretty slowly and also stopped many times to let yak trains and porters past in both directions. The extra cooling provided by my shorts was very welcome although there were frequent patches of shade provided by the pine and juniper trees covering the slope. There were many other trekkers on the track going in both directions. We stopped briefly to chat with a couple of English guys who had been as far as Tengboche and then were on there way back. We had met these two in Namche and they only had a few days to spare before leaving Nepal so Tengboche was as far as they could get in the available time.

Tengboche was reached at about 12:30pm and the Gomap Lodge was a very welcome sight. Dominic and I headed for our room and had a very welcome lie down. Later on I went for a walk back up by the Monastery and took a few pictures.

Monastery Gateway at Tengboche

Gompa at southern entrance to Tengboche

Lhotse from Tengboche

Late in the afternoon back in our room, I managed to get a shot of Everest from our bedroom window.

Everest from Tengboche

The cloud just dropped sufficiently for the late afternoon sun to show us the magnificent sight. Barry and Shirley, who were in the room to our left, also spotted a musk deer just outside their window.

In the dining room that night they had fired up the Yak-poo powered cast iron pot-belly stove. It was so hot in there that I had to go out into the chill evening air to cool down otherwise I would have passed out. On going back in I went to the furthest point I could get from the stove - sitting with strangers rather than repeat the experience. The others joined me soon afterwards as they also began to succumb to the extreme heat.

Pedometer 12811, O2 85%, Pulse 85.